US Returnee Turns Salad Culture Into A Profitable Business In Hyderabad

Diet 80 (per cent) and exercise 20, is a standard rule to follow for losing weight and maintaining overall health. While people in India have easy access to fitness centres, access to affordable healthy food is limited.

To address this gap, Greens & More, a wellness meal brand, was founded here by Preeti Sinha, in 2018. Sinha, a BFSI consultant-turned entrepreneur, has been recognised with the Stri Shakti award in 2020 and recently she has been listed in the top 25 inspiring women in innovation. In a conversation with Bizz Buzz, Preeti Sinha speaks about the strategy and effort that goes into building a healthy food brand in Hyderabad

How was the initial journey of setting up Greens & More?

In 2018, after returning from the US, I had joined a fitness centre here. I found out that people are committed to their fitness routine, but staying healthy is a combination of diet and exercise (80/20 rule). Use of excess oil, and carbs, less vegetables, and high flame cooking diminishes the nutrient value. Even home-cooked meals do not guarantee nutrition balanced food. Based on my experience of preparing salads in the US, I made a bowl of salads for the members attending the fitness centre. Salad in India is considered as a side meal but in the USA, it is one whole meal.

After receiving a positive feedback, I created a WhatsApp group of 20-25 people and started selling them to the group, posting its pictures and ingredients. This helped me in price discovery. I priced one variety at Rs 100, another at Rs 150, Rs 180, and so on. This helped me gauge the price point at which consumers will be willing to buy it.

There are many theories which lay the rules for creating a salad combination. What are the ground rules you followed while creating a salad?

Firstly, I wanted to understand if there is a market for salads here. We kept the principles simple. Eating nutritional food is important than the combination of ingredients used in the salad. I wanted people to shift from eating only carbs to having a combination of carbs, protein, fibres and others. As a company we cannot be subjective to one theory.

We wanted people to understand that they are eating fruits and vegetables which are sauteed or grilled, which has no preservative, sugar and less in sodium. We also made sure that the veggies belonged from different colour family to address the micro nutrients need besides the macro nutrients.

What steps did you take to scale it up?

After the trial period, we started with the subscription model. We started with three-days a week and lunch only. Initially we had six subscribers which later went up to 30. Till then, I was cooking and delivering them personally to understand the taste and liking of the customers. Through this personal interaction I gained a lot of insights.

Later I leased a working kitchen as the subscriber base grew to 100. During this time, I hired a nutritionist and a public health expert. WhatsApp did a case study on us showcasing how small businesses can grow by using their platform. By the end of 2018, I realised that subscription is not a scalable model, and moreover people wanted customised salads, and timely delivery.

What was the learning you gained by catering to the initial consumers?

This one year of learning gave us an insight that all the consumers are IT professionals, having sedentary lifestyle and eat one meal a day at work. Hence, to reach out to them directly we set up the first store at Sattva Knowledge City in mid-2019, and the same year we opened another outlet. In end of the same year, we opened a dine-in space.

But, during Covid we had to scale-down everything. In 2022, we were back full-fledged. We raised the first seed round from Startup India Seed Fund which was invested into Capex, followed by which all the outlets were up and running.

How do you differentiate Greens & More with other similar brands?

There are many similar mom and pop stores in the city. One important thing here is to understand our consumers. Salad cannot be solely sold in the name of being healthy, as consumers would prefer healthy combined with taste.

There is another brand that sells rice and rajma under protein rich food, but this can be easily replicated at our home kitchens itself. Another brand that sells burrito bowl offers very less quantity of veggies in it. What people cannot replicate at home, the quantity, and the taste of the salad is our differentiator.

What does Greens & More offer?

Our salad bar is divided into four categories, such as greens like lettuce, carbs have barley, quinoa, millets, then whole proteins like legumes, nine different veggies and fruits like beans, carrot, pumpkin, apple, cucumber, and antioxidants like olives and jalapenos. We also have three different types of salsa, probiotic pickles like cucumber and carrot, beetroot, onion pickle.

There is an option to make own salad, and secondly, we have salads addressing nutrition requirements of the consumer. We recently introduced zero carb green meal which is a combination of cauliflower rice, in-house salad with a variety of protein. Then we have sizzlers, sandwich, pizzas, harabhara kebab, kala channa chaat, and others which come up to almost 30 items in our menu which includes, beverages, snacks, lunch and dinner.

How have you priced your dishes compared to other brands?

Cost wise…we see the average price of what other brands are offering in the food court and based on that we have roughly priced our food items around that price, so that there is one decision less for consumers to make.

To give an example our burrito bowl’s average order value is Rs 180. We do subscriptions on limited basis. Subscription is offered based on customers paying capacity as the delivery and packaging cost itself is high. Right now, we have about eight subscribers with an average order value of Rs 400.

How do you maintain the quality of the raw materials?

Before Covid, 60 per cent of the raw materials were directly sourced from farmers. After Covid most of the vendors quit the market so sourcing became an issue, during that period, Zomato Hyperpure entered the market.

Over these years we have built a trust with them. If vegetables are grown in pesticide laden land, then how can we be sure of its nutrition value? The differentiator here is using less oil, grilling on iron pan, not using artificial colours and preservatives. We tried sourcing the organic-claimed produce but there is no guarantee of its authenticity unless it is approved and stamped by authorities as followed in the US.

These days, restaurants are more in news for food safety issues. How do you make sure to keep a check on them?

As we are placed inside corporate buildings, they have their own audit compliances. We get surprise audits during any weekday. Our staff is well trained to maintain protocols. Moreover, corporates themselves are conscious on the kind of food being served to their IT employees.

What is your expansion plan for 2025?

By end of 2025, the plan is to have 10 Greens and More outlets in the heart of the IT city, for this we are looking at raising investment. We have the basics ready and validation from consumers has been received now, so we want to scale up.

From January to November 2024, we have done 86,000 meals across three stores. Overall, we have served three lakh meals till date, so with 10 stores…by the end of 2025 we are looking at serving 12-13 lakh people. Entire Hitec city is my addressable target market. I have covered half of Hitec city, now we have to explore the other part of Hitec.

What is the kind of investment that goes into setting up a salad bar?

The Capex depends upon the size and model of the store. For instance, if I am placed in a food court, then it is more like a plug-and-play model, then the Capex is about Rs 5-6 lakh, excluding security deposits, but if it is dine-in format then there is no limit for the investment.

In the upcoming seven stores, one will definitely be in a mall like Sarath City or Inorbit as it will shoot up our revenue. Depending on property and footfall, we will zero down on the next location, but it is going to be malls or multi-tenant facilities where the footfall is about 40,000.

What is the funding amount you are looking to secure?

In Startup India Seed Fund I raised Rs 40 lakh as OCD at Rs 15 crore valuation. Now I will need Rs 3 crore. The investment will be needed for opening new outlets, creating a robust structure, hiring additional employees, marketing and research and development. As of now I have 22 employees and with the expansion will have a total of 55.

The R&D will be related to technology, for instance, vegetable cost during winter is less, this increases our profitability, but during summer the prices shoot up. In order to control the cost of vegetables there is a back-end technology called as individualised quick freezing where vegetables can be quick freezed without compromising on nutrition level. This constant supply chain will bring in consistent flow of profits.

Has this business idea been a profitable one for you?

Until last year we had six stores including cloud kitchen. From these outlets we were able to reach 17 per cent EBITDA with revenue of Rs 2.30 crore, in the last financial year. This year we will be closing with around Rs 2.50 crore and a better EBITDA of 22 per cent from three stores, as this year the whole focus was on consolidation.

How do you handle food fatigue?

While our hero products are burrito bowl and salad, I still keep on experimenting with the menu. All low selling items are removed and new one’s are introduced as food fatigue is very common. Our repeat rate is around 70 per cent as it is the same set of consumers working in these offices. To be relevant we keep changing items based on seasonality.